Tattoos are no longer just the heraldry of sailors, prisoners, prostitutes or Japanese gangsters. They are almost as common as cellphones these days.

Like marijuana, the tattoo has been socially destigmatized. Just go to a beach or a gym or watch “Jersey Shore.”

Its legal decriminalization is less well known. From 1961 to 1997, tattooing was a misdemeanor in New York state. No wonder tattoo parlors were down by the docks or wedged between strip joints.

The tattoo's journey to legitimacy has taken less than 50 years. It's a long way from the days when “freaks” covered in tattoos were shown at carnivals and prisoners were tattooed with numbers.

Ed Hardy, 68, who has now hung up his needle, was at work during those dark days, taking tattooing from the domain of skulls, anchors and dragons. He was so successful that his images were licensed, to his chagrin, on everything from candles to cigarette lighters and perfume. Hardy revisits his career and the tattoo's rise with the help of former pop music critic Joel Selvin.

“Wear Your Dreams” reads like a rock biography, minus the groupies and pretense, plus lots of undramatic detail about his apartments and raising a child. Tattooists are people, too.

Hardy views his life humbly as the learning and refining of a craft, and making a living at it. “Wear Your Dreams” was on his first business card. We move through the shops of mentors, an environment he chose over a scholarship to Yale. He eventually went to Japan (where elaborate tattoos covered the bodies of gangsters), and through alcohol (which he kicked), pot (a longtime love) and surfing (a passion) refined picture-making on human skin.

Hardy became the medium's best-known practitioner. But the windfall became a curse. Hardy came to the attention of marketer Christian Audigier, to whom he signed over all reproduction rights in 2004. Soon the tattooist was drowning in his own imagery.

Hardy parted company with Audigier, but not before his brand was watered down, a misfortune that should give pause to any craftsman who sees dollar signs in his products.